Shock to the System
by Donna Freakin' Noble
Summary: Set the year after Series Four ended. Featuring a changed Tenth Doctor and a new Torchwood lineup including Mickey Smith and Martha Jones. See inside for summary. My OC Veronica Myers at the start, then Torchwood and then the Doctor. Rating for language.
1. Star Gazing

**_Summary:_**_Veronica Myers is a cynic. Even after the events that have spanned the past four years she is still sceptical of alien life. Between three quite obsessive neighbours who spend their lives watching the skies from the roof of her flat and stories of alien sightings and abductions appearing in every single newspaper, Veronica thinks that the world is going insane. Until one night she thinks she sees a strange blue box in the sky. Perhaps if she hadn't said anything she wouldn't have had a problem, but suddenly she is faced with repressed memories and the responsibility of saving the world. _

**Author's Note: **This is my first fanfiction!! Of the Doctor Who variety anyways. This is set after series four and based around Christmas time, although I'm not planning this on being a kind of Xmas Special type thing, I just fancied using that time :p

Constructive criticism is more than welcome, and is actually encouraged, but if you feel the need to flame then at least don't hide behind a stupid Penname that proclaims you're the best writer in existence. Everyone on knows you're all just fat spotty kids with no friends :p And I always find it funny that the flamers don't have any stories of their own… hmmm… And if you do flame don't expect me to respond and/or care. It's not my fault you waste your lives by putting down others. That's all I will ever say on the matter :3 (if you hadn't noticed I feel strongly about flamers lol!)

Anywho, to the story :D New Torchwood with Micky Smith and Martha Jones is one thing included, also a very different Tenth Doctor. Maybe even (if I can fit it in) a return of a certain loudmouthed temp. Please read and review! Thanks! :D

* * *

**1**

**Star Gazing**

There was a noise. A weird noise. Kind of a humming, vibrating noise. It wasn't showing any sign of stopping.

Veronica Myers rolled over and pulled her pillow over her ears. She could still hear it. If anything, it was just getting louder. With a grunt, she groped around in the darkness, her hand falling upon her alarm clock. She squinted at it, the red LCD numbers stinging her eyes. Three-twenty am. She groped further until her hand finally landed on her phone and she pulled it beneath the duvet.

The bright light of the screen almost blinded her, but she made out a name.

'Oh, Jo what do you want?' she muttered groggily, but answered anyway.

'Veronica! What the hell were you doing? I thought you weren't going to answer!'

Veronica rolled on her back and rubbed her face. 'I was asleep. Because, you know, half three in the morning is usually sleeping-time.'

'It's half three? Oh right. Well, sorry but this is pretty important. I want you to come up to the roof.'

'The roof? What the hell?'

'Seriously, I'm up there now with Ben and Keira. You have to come up.'

Veronica pulled her duvet back over her head. 'Jo, you know for a fact that I'm at the library at eight in the morning. I'm too knackered to be sitting about with you crazy sods on the roof. Plus it's the middle of winter. We'll freeze to death.'

'Stop your whining and get your backside up here,' Jo replied. 'If you're not up here in ten minutes I'm going to come down and throw a bucket of water on you.'

Veronica hung up. She lay there for a moment, staring up at the ceiling before sighing viciously and kicking the blankets off her.

* * *

Five minutes later and she was pushing open the fire door that lead out onto the roof of her small block of flats. She was still in her pyjamas (her favourite blue ones with the little sheep all over) but she had pulled on her trainers and her thick khaki parka coat. As soon as she stepped outside she saw her breath coming out of her mouth and the cold sent a chill through her.

'This better be bloomin' good.' She mumbled in annoyance as she crossed the frosty ground to the four other people on the roof.

Jo was her best friend so she would be able to forgive her for dragging her up here, but Ben and Keira were nut jobs. They were into conspiracies and wouldn't even use a cash point because it meant the government would know exactly where they were at that exact moment. Even if the government were using cash cards to keep track of the general public, they wouldn't be interested in Ben and Keira.

'I was just about to come down and get you!' Jo beamed, her brown eyes wide and sparkling in the security light that was constantly on up here. Her black hair was tied back tightly and she was stood in a sleeping bag. Whatever they were doing up here they had been doing it for a while.

Ben and Keira hadn't even acknowledged her. They were huddled in front of a telescope, taking turns at peering into it and chattering quietly. Veronica went straight to Jo, not wanting either of them to acknowledge her.

'Come on then,' she sighed, shivering from the cold. 'What's so important?'

Jo pulled her arms out of the sleeping bag and grabbed Veronica's shoulders. She was grinning like a maniac. 'Veronica, you're not going to believe this, but…' She paused dramatically. 'But we think we've just found a spaceship.'

Veronica blinked at her. 'A spaceship.' She repeated, flatly.

Jo's eyes were practically glowing. She nodded vigorously. Before Veronica had the chance to say anything else she was being pulled towards the telescope by Ben.

'You'll believe it when you see it, trust me.' He told her. 'You'll have to.'

Jo hopped behind her in the sleeping bag and perched on a plastic garden chair. Ben sat Veronica down forcibly in front of the telescope.

'Um, are you sure there's not just something on the lens?' Veronica asked warily. She hated this kind of stuff. It only proved further that Ben and Keira were nutters. Jo was a nutter too, but only at night.

'Look and see.' Jo urged. 'Go on.'

Veronica wanted nothing more than to tell them all to bugger off and go back to bed, but she knew better than that. All three of them lived on the floor below her and she couldn't be bothered with the awkwardness that would follow if she ever ridiculed their belief in the extra-terrestrial. They constantly insisted they were open minded, but they were too stubborn in their own beliefs. Challenge them, and they would rather jump off a bridge than admit that there could be a slight possibility that they were wrong.

So to save the hassle, Veronica peered into the telescope. 'What am I meant to be looking at.' She said, not surprised at the fact.

'You should be able to see three stars,' Keira told her impatiently. 'Making a triangle. It's obvious. Those three stars are not part of the normal constellations. It's a spaceship.'

Veronica sighed and looked again. She saw the three stars, and nothing else. She started to insist they were just stars, but then she did see something. It was only for a moment and it could have even been her imagination. In fact, it probably was. She thought she had seen a blue box.

'They're just stars.' She insisted, moving back and standing up. 'Look, I admire your determination to find something out there and I'm happy to hear about what you've found but… well… I just don't want to hear about it at half three in the morning when I have to be at work in four and a half hours.'

Keira shook her head in disgust and look away. 'I told you, Jo. It's pointless showing her.'

Veronica rolled her eyes and looked towards her best friend, who looked dismayed. 'Sorry Jo,' she sighed. 'But I'm just too tired for this. You can tell me all about it tomorrow, okay?'

'You really think they're just stars?' Jo asked sadly.

Veronica paused. _Had_ she seen something? No. It was just imagination. She shook her head and shrugged. 'Sorry.'

Jo sighed. 'Okay. Sorry about dragging you up here.'

Veronica smiled. 'It's okay.' She glanced back to Keira and Ben who were muttering quietly to each other again. 'I'll see you two later, okay?'

They didn't respond. She had gone back to not existing. She offered another apologetic smile to Jo, and then headed for the door. She hated disappointing Jo like that, but she didn't want to lie to her. How could she say she saw something in those stars when she didn't?

Didn't she?


	2. Passionate

**2 **

**Passionate**

'I'm sorry but that book was due back three months ago,' Veronica told the elderly woman for the nineteenth time in the past ten minutes. 'There's a fine.'

'A fine!' the woman exclaimed in horror. 'Now why would I have to pay a fine? I've brought it back in one piece, haven't I? All the pages are in tact, aren't they?'

Veronica glanced down at the book, which was the aptly titled _Misery_, and opened the cover. She pointed at the last stamp. 'The date here says September eighteenth. This was when it was due back. Today's date is December nineteenth. I'm sorry but that means it's late and you'll have to pay a fine.'

'The reason I come to the library is so I don't have to pay for the books I read,' the old woman replied sharply. 'And how am I supposed to read a book like that in two weeks?'

'You could have come back and renewed it if you hadn't finished. I'm sorry, but I don't make the rules. I'm just doing my job.'

The old woman snorted. 'Just doing your job. That's what the Nazi's said when they were rounded up after the war.' She thumped her purse down noisily on the counter. 'How much are you demanding from me then?'

Veronica swallowed and checked the system. She hated fining people, and if it had only been a month she probably would have let the old bird off but after comparing her to a Nazi, well… the old cow was lucky she didn't fine her twice as much.

'It's seven pounds eighty.' She told her.

'Seven pounds eighty!' the woman cried. 'That's daylight robbery! I don't get much of a pension you know! I suppose I'll have to sit in the cold for the next few days seeing as I won't be able put any money on the gas…'

Veronica didn't feel any guilt in taking the money. She knew for a fact the woman lived in an old people's home about ten minutes away. Her address was on the screen in front of her. She took satisfaction in taking the woman's money. 'Thank you.'

'Thank you,' the woman sniffed. 'Children today. You have no respect! I hope by the time you're my age you get persecuted like I do! Disgraceful. I would never have dared speak to my elders the way you lot do.' She turned and left, muttering in annoyance. Veronica sighed in relief as she disappeared through the doors. She dropped down on the rotating chair behind her and twirled around to face the other side of the U-shaped desk. She let out a surprised yelp at a big, grinning face right in front of her.

'You should be nice to old ladies,' her older brother Bradley grinned. 'They write letters to the newspapers you know.'

Veronica rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. He was leaning over the desk, still grinning moronically. He was only older than her by a year, but people normally mistook him as her younger brother. Probably because he had the same amount of maturity as a ten year old. It was obvious they were both related though. They had the same facial structure, the same auburn hair, and the same bright green eyes.

'What are you doing here?' she frowned. 'I'm already having a crap day without you rubbing my face in it that I appear to be the only person I know who is actually _working_.'

'Hey,' Bradley frowned, running a hand through his auburn hair. 'I work too.'

'Three hours a week sticking pizza menus through people's doors doesn't count.' Veronica replied, crossing her arms. 'And you don't even post them properly. You shoved about twenty through my door the other day, and I know it was you so don't bother denying it.'

Bradley shrugged. 'Everyone knows where the pizza place is. They don't need reminding every other day. Anyway, I've got a surprise for you.'

'A surprise? Are you going to ask me to lend you thirty quid again? Because the answer is no.'

Bradley frowned. 'Can't you expect something nice from me for once?'

Veronica pretended to think about it, and then shook her head. 'Nope.'

'Whatever. I just got two hundred quid from this thing I took part in about a month ago. I'm taking you out to pick a Christmas present.'

Veronica raised her eyebrows and then frowned sceptically. 'What did you take part in?'

'Just some drug testing thing,' he raised his hands to silence her before she started. 'It was completely safe! I'm fine! And I've got two hundred quid at the end of the day. And even if something had gone wrong and I'd swelled up then I could always sue them.'

Veronica sighed and shook her head. 'Whatever, Brad. Sorry but I can't right now. I case you hadn't noticed I'm at work.'

'Well what time do you finish?'

'Five. Like I do every day.'

Bradley glanced at his watch. 'Oh man, it's only one.'

She shrugged. 'Sorry.'

'Well, don't you get a dinner break?'

'Yeah, but just for an hour. That's not really enough time to go Christmas shopping.'

'Well we'll go for lunch together, huh? Come on, it's one now. That's lunch time, right?'

Veronica mused over it for a moment and then sighed. It wasn't often her brother offered to do something nice for her. She might as well make the most of it. 'Okay.' She said, standing. 'Give me five minutes while I go get someone to take over here.'

Bradley grinned. 'Coolio.'

'And don't say coolio, Brad. You sound like an idiot.'

* * *

'You need to get a new flat,' Bradley said through a mouthful of sandwich. 'One of these days you're going to wake up in a bathtub full of ice with your kidney's missing living with that lot.'

Veronica rolled her eyes and she picked the tomatoes out of her own sandwich. 'They're not that bad. They're just… passionate.'

'Passionate? Is that what you call psycho these days?'

Veronica scowled at her brother over the table. 'They're harmless, okay? I mean all they did was make me look through a telescope. Fair enough Jo's been acting weirder and weirder since she's been hanging around with them but who am I to judge what she does in her spare time? So what if they spend every night sitting on the roof looking for spaceships. Does that make them psychos?'

'Crazies, maybe.' Bradley shrugged.

Veronica sighed and leaned back. 'You're right.' She mumbled. 'I'm surrounded by lunatics.'

'What do they do anyway?' He picked a piece of lettuce from his chin and flicked it onto the floor. 'That Keira and Ben.'

'They're on the dole.' Veronica shrugged. 'I don't think either of them have worked for years. They just sit on the roof with that telescope looking for little green men.' She smirked and shook her head. 'Like they'll ever come back _here_.'

Bradley nodded in agreement. 'I think we scared them all off.' He leaned back and grinned. 'It's because we're all so great. No one will mess with Earth.'

Veronica half laughed. 'Yeah, because you so didn't hide under your bed when those pepper pot things were whizzing around outside.'

Bradley frowned. 'I didn't fancy getting that kind of fatal X-Ray thing they were giving everyone.' He glanced down at his sandwich. 'And anyway, you hid too.'

'Yeah, but I didn't tell everyone that I managed to blow one of them up.'

'How do you know I didn't?'

Veronica laughed and shook her head. 'You couldn't blow up a balloon.'

Bradley grimaced and glanced around to see if anyone had heard. Apparently, no one had. 'So did you see anything through their little telescope then?'

'Nah. Nothing.' She paused, remembering the thing she thought she saw. 'Well… I _thought_ I saw something, but it was half three in the morning and I had just woke up.'

Bradley took a bite much too big out of his sandwich and said something incomprehensible, which Veronica took as, 'What did it look like?'

'Oh I don't know. It was just like, a one second thing.' She paused. 'I thought I'd saw a blue box.'

Bradley suddenly spluttered and began to cough loudly, his face going an alarming shade of red. Veronica sat back, wide eyed.

'Are you okay?' she asked.

He continued to splutter, his eyes wide and almost bulging. He pointed at his throat making choking noises. Immediately, Veronica jumped up and moved around the other side of the table. She pulled him up and wrapped his arms around his waist, and then squeezed hard. On the first squeeze a lump of soggy sandwich flew out of his mouth and landed in her drink. She cocked an eyebrow.

'Oh, nice.' She mumbled.

Bradley was still coughing, but her turned and grabbed her arm. 'Did you say blue box?' he asked.

Veronica was frightened by the intensity of his stare. She pushed him off her arm and frowned nervously. 'Yeah, but it was just my imagination. Calm down, Brad.'

'No, no,' Bradley shook his head. 'You don't just 'think' you've seen a blue box in space. If you've seen it, you've seen it.' He turned suddenly and headed for the door.

'Bradley!' Veronica called after him. 'Where are you going?'

He turned back briefly. 'I've got to go see someone. I'll phone later, okay?'

'Bradley!'

But he had gone. Veronica frowned in confusion, and then glanced around. Almost everyone in the place was staring at her in bewilderment. She blushed a little and picked up her coat before dashing out of the door.


	3. Of Legend

**3 **

**Of Legend**

Days off.

Veronica loved days off.

It was eleven thirty in the morning and she had just woken up, which made a change from her usual early rise of seven thirty. She was going to spend the day in town and treating herself to some much needed retail therapy. Right now she was ironing her jeans, dressed only in her t-shirt and knickers, while singing loudly along to the _Ting Tings_ on the radio.

'_They call me quiet girl, but I'm a ri-ot… maybe Joleisa, always the same…'_

Too busy dancing, Veronica failed to hear her front door open.

'_That's not my name. That's not my name. That's not my name-'_

'And X-Factor didn't call you back?'

Veronica let out a yelp of surprise and snapped her head around. Bradley stood in the doorway grinning at her. She flushed bright red and immediately pulled her jeans on. 'Haven't you heard of knocking?' she scowled.

'I did. And you were too busy trying to be the next Debbie Harry.'

Veronica flicked off the iron and put it on the kitchen bench, which was only an arm stretch away. Her flat was small and had an open layout. 'What the hell have you been doing anyway? I tried phoning you all last night but you had your mobile off.'

Bradley shrugged his shoulders, causing his nylon jacket to make a ruffling sound. 'I had to go see someone.'

Veronica looked at him sceptically before going into her bedroom to put a clean top on. 'Wasn't about what I told you in Subway, was it? About that stupid blue box I didn't see.'

'As a matter of fact… It might have been.'

Veronica returned flattening the front of her knee-length brown dress she wore over her jeans and grimaced. 'And you were trying to tell me Jo is a nutter! You don't sound much better! I told you, I didn't even see it.'

Bradley moved close to her and took her shoulders. The intensity in his gaze silenced her. 'I know this guy and he _really_ wants to talk to you. I promised him you'd come along today because I knew you had a day off. He's waiting at his place. It's only ten minutes away on the train.'

Veronica pushed his hands off her and half laughed. 'Uh-huh. I don't think so, matey. This is my only day off this week. I'm going shopping. It's Christmas Day in… four days. I don't have _any_ presents in. And plus it's the Christmas party tomorrow night and I need a dress.'

Bradley stuck his bottom lip out. 'Veronica!' he whined. 'It won't take long! We'll be there an hour, tops, and then you can go shopping. I promise!'

'The answer is no, Brad. I'm not wasting my time with more alien conspiracy nutcases. Jesus you'd think after their existence has actually been confirmed it would all die down but if anything it's just gotten worse!' She grabbed a magazine from her coffee table and pointed at a cover. 'See this? This is what I'm talking about. Everyone's going insane!'

Bradley leaned squinted to read the headline on the front of Heat Magazine and read it aloud. 'I adopted a Martian.' He cocked an eyebrow at the picture of Madonna. 'Well it was only a matter of time really.'

Veronica tossed the magazine aside and raised her hands. 'I'm _sick_ of hearing about aliens. Seriously, if one more person talks to me about aliens today I'll throttle them.'

'Come on, V!' Bradley shoved her gently. 'One hour. Then I promise I'll leave you alone forever. I'll never mention it again.'

Veronica rolled her eyes. 'One hour.' She sighed after a moment. 'And don't call me V. I hate it.'

'Okay, Vernie.'

She punched him in the shoulder and grabbed her coat and shoes. 'Now get moving before I change my bloody mind.'

* * *

The train had been late. Half an hour late to be exact, which meant that the ten-minute trip he had promised her hadn't exactly been true.

'If I walk in here and find a fat, greasy middle aged guy who's living with his mum then I'm going home.' Veronica grumbled as they walked along the bitterly cold street.

'Cal is an alright bloke.' Bradley told her confidently. 'His apartment is pretty cool actually. On the top floor. He's got loads of computers and stuff though so you've got to watch out for the wires.'

Veronica sighed. 'I can't believe I'm wasting my day off by visiting Bill Gates.'

'Stop whining about your bloody day off. Christ you only work in the library. It's not exactly slave labour.'

Veronica scowled at him but said nothing else. Instead she followed him silently and broodingly into a block of flats just off the main street. Bradley went straight to the lift and punched the button.

'One hour, I swear.' He told her, rubbing his hands to warm up from the cold.

Veronica sighed. 'Yeah yeah.' She muttered. She felt a pang of regret as she stepped in the lift, but she shoved it away.

* * *

'Oh hey!' Cal French cried excitedly as he opened the door to Bradley and a not-so-enthusiastic Veronica. 'Come on in!'

Bradley headed straight in with a grin and happy greetings while Veronica entered more slowly, closing the door gently behind her. She eyed Cal uneasily. He was about her age – early twenties, and was surprisingly half-good looking. Not her type of course. He needed a haircut and a shave, but he wasn't exactly repulsive. He hopped over stray wires with familiarity and keenly offered them a seat on the sofa. Bradley was already pulling off his scarf and coat.

'Come on, Veronica.' He smiled to his sister. 'Come and sit down.'

Veronica hesitated, glancing around the flat. It was packed with electronic equipment. Just looking around once she saw about three desktop computers and four laptops. The rest of the stuff she didn't have a clue what they were. Finally she moved forward, but didn't remove her scarf or jacket.

'You're Veronica, huh?' Cal grinned, his brown eyes wide and sparkling with curiosity. 'I'm Cal.' He reached out to shake her hand.

She shook his hand quickly, and then returned it to her lap. 'Nice to meet you.' She lied.

'Can I get either of you a drink or anything?' Cal asked, smiling politely. 'I got beers or if you'd rather I got tea and coffee…'

Bradley grinned. 'I'll have a beer if that's…'

'No you won't.' Veronica cut in. She smiled at Cal. 'We're not staying long. It's my day off.' She shot a look at Bradley. 'My _only_ day off.'

Cal's smile faltered and he nodded rapidly. His eyes didn't seem to blink or lose that glimmer. 'Right. Well… okay. I guess I'll get on with it then.' He smiled again at Veronica and reached towards a pile of papers beside him. 'Brad called me yesterday and said you saw something the other night.'

Veronica sighed. 'I said I _thought_ I saw something. Seriously, I said it looked like a blue box but when I think about it I don't even think it _was_ blue. _Or_ a box.'

Cal didn't look convinced. He glanced to Bradley, who just shrugged weakly. Cal handed Veronica a piece of paper. He waved it gently when she didn't take it right away. 'Did it look like that?'

Veronica took the paper and looked at it. It was a picture of a blue phone box. A police box. The kind that was around in the sixties. Veronica felt a brief, unexplainable shiver as she looked at it, but it left her as soon as it hit. She shrugged and handed it back. 'Maybe, I don't know. I only saw it for like, a second. And anyway, what the hell would a public call box be doing in the sky?'

Cal tucked the piece of paper away and leaned forward as if he was going to share some awe-inspiring secret with her. 'You remember earlier this year. The Dalek invasion.'

Veronica swallowed. She didn't like it when people called those weird robot things Daleks. 'Yeah. How could I not forget that? The planet moved to the other side of the universe. Or so they said on TV.'

Cal blinked. 'Yeah. Well… You know who saved us, don't you? Who got rid of them? Who saved us all?'

Veronica cocked an eyebrow. 'I remember watching it on the news. The guy said that the… _aliens_… couldn't adjust to our atmosphere. And once they all blew up or whatever, the planet was automatically returned. Simple enough really.' She shrugged and looked to Bradley, but he was looking away. He actually looked a little embarrassed. Veronica shrunk back slight, wondering if she had missed something.

Cal glanced at his hands, and then back up at her. 'Veronica, have you ever heard of the Doctor?'

Veronica laughed very loudly and very suddenly, taking both men by surprise. 'The Doctor? You mean that mysterious alien expert that always pops up in those conspiracy stories? Yeah I've heard of him.' She chuckled again. 'Nothing but a load of crap.'

Cal looked stricken. 'Oh no, no no. He's not crap at all. The Doctor is a legend.' He grabbed another piece of paper and thrust it towards her, this time shaking it with a little more urgency.

Veronica took it. It was a blurry image, obviously taken from a CCTV camera, of a man in a long brown coat and a suit. It was hard to make out his face. She shook her head and smiled in amusement. 'That's the legendary Doctor?'

Cal looked completely bewildered. 'Yeah, that's him. I need to know if you really saw a blue box in the sky, Veronica, because if you did… welll…' He paused and looked to Bradley. Bradley looked away again, chewing his thumbnail.

Troubled by their reactions, Veronica frowned and leaned forward. 'What?'

Cal bit his lip. 'If you saw the blue box… if the Doctor is here…' He paused dramatically. 'Then that means the Earth is in danger. Again.'

* * *

_It might seem like this is taking a while to get to the juicy bits (by juicy I mean Doctor lol) but I assure you he'll be around soon :D Please let me know what you think! Thanks! x_


	4. Messages

Author's Note: Thanks everyone who read and reviewed! It means a lot! Getting to the juicy bits now lol! :D

* * *

**4**

**Messages**

Bradley and Cal were in the kitchen getting drinks. Veronica could hear them chatting excitedly about the consequences of another alien invasion so soon after the last. She remained on the couch, her arms crossed over her chest stubbornly as she stewed in her own juices.

This was ridiculous. Out of all the people Bradley could have brought her to see, he had to bring her to this nutter. If it wasn't bad enough she lived with three of them, he had to introduce her to a new one. Cal had sat there and told her that there would be a reason that she saw the blue box as not everyone sees it. Also he admitted he had spent most of his adult life searching for the Doctor, with no avail. He kept on insisting that you don't just stumble on the Doctor. It's always for a reason.

_A load of bollocks._ She thought as she recalled what Cal had been saying for the past half an hour. However that hadn't stopped her from sitting and listening. Bradley had hung on his every word. She hadn't been aware that her older brother was so gullible.

The two of them had gotten onto the topic of Roswell and by the quick and excited tones of their voices, Veronica could tell they weren't going to return any time soon. She sat still with her coat and scarf on, looking around Cal's front room in boredom. The place was wired up all over, with computers hooked up to every power socket in the room.

_His electricity bills must go through the roof_, she mused.

Veronica got to her feet and glanced back towards the kitchen. They were still chatting away, not paying any attention to her. She decided just to leave. What the hell was she here for anyway? Why had she allowed Bradley to bring her here? Because she was soft, that's why. She had always been soft. This was her day off. Her _only_ day off before Christmas, and she would be damned if she was going to sit around in a strangers flat talking about aliens.

'Sod this.' She muttered, and headed for the door. Before she reached it, however, she allowed her fingers to brush over a strange old-fashioned two-way radio. As soon as her fingers touched the cool surface, it sparked. She snapped her hand away with a gasp. A moment later and it was whining and crackling. She glanced back towards the kitchen, but neither Cal nor Bradley had heard. She moved towards it, looking for the off button. The last thing she needed was to break this stuff. She had no idea what it was and therefore had no idea whether it was expensive or not.

Although it didn't look expensive.

She turned one of the dials. The radio crackled some more. She winced, and turned the dial the other way.

'…e…lo?'

Veronica's eyebrows rose. She didn't just hear someone, did she? She listened.

'…llo? I… som…..ne th…re?'

Veronica glanced back to the kitchen. The others still hadn't noticed. She hesitated, and picked up the speaker. 'Hello?' She looked at it and pressed the button. 'Uh, hello?'

'Hello!' the voice was momentarily clear. 'For a minute there I thought I was ta…king to mys…lf!'

Veronica half frowned. 'Um, can I help you?'

'Yes! I'm st…. in an ….ergy fiel…'

'I'm sorry you're breaking up. I, uh, I kind of don't know how to work these things. It isn't mine you see.'

She heard nothing but static for a moment and she thought the person had hung up. But then suddenly, with a burst of static, he spoke again.

'Who is this?'

'Um, Veronica Myers. Who's this?'

'…'m the Doc….'

Veronica frowned. 'Sorry, what?'

'…. Doctor. I'm the Doctor.'

Veronica felt a rush of blood go to her cheeks. 'Did you say the Doctor?'

'Yes. Veroni…a M..ers can you tell me wh… Ja… is? Captain Ja….'

Veronica scowled. 'Yeah really funny Bradley. You can stop with the sideshow now, I'm leaving.'

'What? Wait, wait-'

Veronica put the speaker down and turned one of the dials, killing the static and the voice. She whirled around. 'Funny Bradley!' she yelled towards the kitchen. 'I'm going to get you back for this, I swear!'

Bradley and Cal poked their heads around the doorframe and looked at her in bewilderment. 'What?' Bradley frowned.

'Sod you, Brad. Don't expect any bloody Christmas dinner from me.'

She turned, heart thudding in her chest, and stormed out of the flat slamming the door behind her. She steamed all the way home, bitter that she had wasted her only day off for a stupid practical joke.


	5. Conversations With Aliens

**5**

**Conversations With Aliens**

In the end, Veronica had to unplug her phone and turn off her mobile. The calls coming from Bradley just weren't stopping. He wanted to know why she had gone, as if he didn't already know. Although he had sounded quite confused when she had yelled at him about winding her up with a radio. She had heard Cal in the background so she knew he was still at Cal's. She told her brother that if he turned up at her flat she would iron his face.

That made him stop calling for about ten minutes. Then she unplugged the phone.

It was dark now, although it was only five o'clock. After the trek back home from the train station and battling the gale force winter winds she had been exhausted and couldn't be bothered to go shopping for a dress for the Christmas Party. She probably had something tucked away in the back of her wardrobe anyway. Plus, she would have more money to buy a nicer bottle of wine to take with her. The wine that she was planning on keeping in her bag to top up her glass to save spending money at the bar.

Veronica inhaled deeply and drummed her fingers on the arm of the sofa. Her TV was off but she was staring at it anyway. Despite her annoyance with Bradley's trick, she could stop thinking about the pictures that Cal had showed her. She didn't know whether it was just the power of suggestion, but after seeing the blue phone box thing, it struck her that the thing in the sky had looked _very _similar.

But that would be ridiculous. It would be impossible for that to be up there. She would accept that maybe she saw a spaceship, because it was no secret that aliens existed – but a phone box?

Veronica wondered what Jo would make of the whole thing. She had mentioned the Doctor once or twice, but she didn't seem to know much about it. Just another one of those things the government doesn't want us to know, she always said. Veronica always smiled and nodded and never listened properly.

With a yawn, Veronica stretched out on the couch. It hadn't been a particularly tiring day, but the thought of being at work at eight in the morning made her feel instantly drained. At least she only had three days off, and then it was Christmas. Although she had no Christmas shopping. She had been planning on getting it today.

'Stupid Bradley with his stupid crazy friends…' she mumbled, before yawning and dozing off.

* * *

She awoke sometime later with someone prodding her sharply in her arm. She groaned and swatted at the nuisance and snuggled down again. The prodding returned again, this time harder and sending a jolt of pain through her shoulder.

'Ow!' she whined groggily, swatting again and opening her eyes lazily. She blinked.

She blinked again.

'Nice to see you've decided to join me.' The man with the spiky brown hair and wide eyes said in irritation. 'Now could you kindly tell me what you're doing in my Tardis?'

Veronica jerked up and away from the stranger and for the first time realised that she was no longer on the couch. She looked down at the metal grate beneath her, and then back towards the man. He was still looking at her impatiently, but there was a glimmer of curiosity in his eyes too.

'Where the hell am I?' she shrieked. 'Who the hell are you?'

The man groaned and rolled his eyes. 'Oh not again. This happened before.' He stood up and walked away a little, running his hands through his hair. 'I haven't got time to be picking up strays.'

Veronica leapt to her feet and stared around in disbelief. The room she was in was huge, with a dome shaped ceiling covered with strange circles and weird, wavy support beams. There was a mushroom shaped thing in the middle, covered in buttons and levers with a large, glowing blue tube sprouting out of the centre. The man was leaning on the weird mushroom shape thing with his back to her.

'I'm having one heck of a bad couple of days and to top it off I get another stranger finding their way on my apparently impenetrable spaceship.' He looked up at the blue tube and spoke to it. 'What's all that about, eh? What's the matter with you?'

Veronica shifted on her feet. Her heart was pounding. She must be dreaming. This was insane. 'Is this a spaceship?' she asked with mounting hysteria. 'Did you abduct me? Have I been abducted?'

The man looked around at her with a screwed up face. 'Abduct you? What the hell would I want to abduct you for? It's probably the electric pulses picking up random beings. Probably have enough for a line dancing tournament soon.' He turned with a sigh and crossed his arms over his chest. 'So who are you?'

Veronica gathered herself and frowned. 'Who am I? Who are _you_?!'

'Me? I'm the Doctor. And you've managed to get into my Tardis when it's on partial lockdown, which means a lot because when it's on partial lockdown even _I_ can't get out. I've been stuck here for nigh on, oh…' He glanced at his watch. 'Seventy-two hours? Imagine being stuck in here for seventy-two hours. Now are you going to tell me who you are or do we have to play Guess Who? Actually, I wouldn't mind that because it might pass the time a little. So come on then. Give me a name and stop gawping at me.'

Veronica was just staring at him with her jaw hanging open. He raised an eyebrow at her in confusion.

'Catching flies?' he enquired. 'Because you won't find any in here.'

Veronica blinked. 'The… the Doctor. You're… the Doctor.'

The man, or the Doctor rather, nodded impatiently. 'Yes, and it's impolite not to introduce yourself back.'

Veronica stared at him for a moment longer. 'Veronica Myers.' She said automatically.

His expression changed to confusion, to utter bewilderment, to shock. 'Veronica Myers? The same Veronica Myers who I was talking to a couple of hours ago?'

Veronica visibly flinched. 'That was _you_!' she cried. 'I thought it was Bradley!'

'Yeah, I gathered that when you started yelling at Bradley.' He moved towards her, head cocked curiously. 'How did I get in touch with you? I was trying to get in touch with Torchwood.'

Veronica moved her head back from his inquisitive face as he surveyed her. 'I dunno.' She shrugged. 'You probably just got crossed wires or something. How the hell would I know?'

The Doctor circled around her for the second time. 'No, I had a dead set marker on Cardiff. You don't sound like you're from Cardiff.'

'No. London.' Veronica frowned.

'Oh, whereabouts?' he asked cheerfully.

She just looked at him.

'Too soon? Okay.' He stepped back and crossed his arms, examining her. 'Well then. I haven't got a clue.'

'You haven't got a clue about what?'

'About how you got here.'

Veronica rolled her eyes. 'Well that's bloody golden, isn't it!' she cried sarcastically. 'How am I supposed to get home?'

The Doctor shrugged. 'How the hell would I know?' he said, mocking the way she had said it earlier. She glared at him for it. 'I suppose you're just stuck here until I get unstuck and I can drop you off.' He moved back towards the glowy tube thing. 'That's if I ever get in touch with that great big idiot at Torchwood.'

'What great big idiot?' Veronica frowned. 'What are you on about?'

'Captain Jack Harkness.' The Doctor replied. 'He's the only one who can disengage the electro pulses from earth so I can get out of the enclosure. How I got into this stupid mess in the first place I don't know…'

Veronica snapped awake with a gasp. She sat up abruptly and rubbed her face. She took a good few minutes to check that she was in her flat again and once she was certain, she lay back down and sighed heavily. She rubbed her head, blinking, and decided that was the weirdest dream she had ever had in her life.

But then as she got up to go and get a cup of coffee, she realised that she wasn't lying on the couch where she had fallen asleep, she was lying under the window on the other side of the room.


	6. Sharing

Author's Note: Thanks everyone who's reading! :D This one is a bit... um... uneventful, but I needed to do it to move onto the next chapter or else it wouldn't have made sense. Hope you're enjoying! x

* * *

**6**

**Sharing**

Joanna Redcar, resident of flat number five, was feeling lazy so she got the lift up to the next floor. Even though it was about one in the afternoon, she was still dressed in her PJs and her bulky cow slippers. The man in the lift looked at her like she was insane, but she just smiled at him broadly and pressed the button for the next floor.

She half walked and half skipped down the corridor towards Veronica's flat to get some sugar, seeing as she had completely ran out. She and Veronica had given each other keys to their apartments for situations just like these. People asked why they didn't just live together, but they both liked their space. Plus, they were only a floor apart. They saw each other nearly every day.

Jo unlocked the door and walked into the flat, humming gently under her breath. It was dark inside so she assumed that Veronica had gone out without opening the curtains. She strode across the room, still humming, and flung open the curtains.

'Christ, what time is it?'

Jo whirled around in surprise to see Veronica sitting at the small dining table tucked in the corner, hunched over her laptop. Her eyes were red and her hair was dishevelled. She looked like she hadn't slept at all. Jo looked at her for a moment, and then grinned broadly in her usual chipper way.

'Thought you were at work,' she said, moving to the kitchen and looking inside the fridge.

Veronica rubbed her face vigorously with both hands. 'I uh… I lost track of the time.'

Jo emerged with a carton of pineapple juice and closed the fridge with her hip. She sat heavily down at the table and drank straight from the carton. 'What are you doing?'

Veronica closed the laptop, but not all the way. 'Um… nothing.' She blinked and rubber her eyes again. 'Just… looking at stuff.'

Jo snorted and grabbed the laptop, twirling it around. 'Let me see.'

'No, don't-' Veronica started, making a grab it. She was too slow and gave up with a heavy sigh.

Jo's eyes lit up when she looked at the screen. 'Oh my god…' she mumbled. She looked to Veronica in disbelief. 'Torchwood?'

Veronica frowned and snapped the laptop shut with a limp hand. 'I was just looking at it for someone. Someone was asking about it.'

Jo looked at her sceptically. 'Yeah, because you're the kind of person to sit up all night and miss work to look something up on the Internet for someone.'

Veronica took the pineapple juice from Jo and took a quick swig. 'It was urgent.'

Jo leaned forward, her eyes too sparkling orbs. 'It's about that thing you saw, wasn't it?'

'What? What thing?'

'Oh don't lie, V. I saw the look on your face when you looked through the telescope. You saw something we didn't see.' She paused and shrugged. 'And Bradley told me anyway. He said something happened at Cal's place too.'

Veronica was looking at her guiltily, although she didn't know why she felt guilty. 'You know Cal?'

'Yeah I know Cal!' Jo laughed. 'I used to go to college with the guy. Why do you think I'm obsessed with aliens!'

Veronica half smiled. 'Because you're crazy.'

'Apart from that.' Jo eyed her for a moment. 'There's something you're not telling me…' she said in a sing-song voice.

Veronica leaned back. 'There's nothing I'm not telling you.' She stopped and frowned. 'Wait, is that the right use of negatives? Oh forget it.'

'Tell me why you were looking up Torchwood.' Jo pressed. 'If you do maybe I can tell you a few things about it too.'

'You can?'

'See! I knew it! You're up to something!'

Veronica sighed, busted. She leaned forward and rested her forehead on the table. 'I'm going crazy, Jo.' She whined. 'And I'm going to get fired for missing work.'

'You can get another job.' Jo said dismissively. 'Now tell me. Now. Or I'll give you a Chinese burn.'

Veronica sat up again. 'Okay, okay.' She sighed. 'When you dragged me onto the roof I… Well I thought I saw this weird box thing in the sky but I didn't want to say anything because I wasn't sure if I had actually seen anything. And then I went for lunch with Bradley and he got me a sandwich-'

'Wait,' Jo frowned. 'Bradley bought your lunch?'

Veronica nodded. 'I know! Anyway, we were talking and I told him that I might have seen a weird blue box. And then he starts choking and runs off saying he'll phone me later. So I don't hear a _thing_ from him for the rest of the day and he just turns up at my apartment yesterday, wanting to take me to see someone. So to shut him up I go and we get to Cal's place, and he starts talking about this bloke called the Doctor and showing me pictures of a blue phone box…'

Jo gasped and clamped her hands over her mouth. She stared at Veronica with wide eyes and nodded for her to carry on.

'Why does everyone do that?' Veronica cried. 'You're all insane!'

Jo nodded a little more vigorously and Veronica sighed.

'Well anyway, they go off and get a drink and I go to leave and then the radio comes on and this man starts talking. He says he's the Doctor and I thought it was Bradley mucking about so I came home. But then…' She leaned forward. 'I fell asleep on the couch, right? And I had this really vivid dream. I woke up and that man was there. The Doctor. He was asking me what I was doing in his spaceship and he was saying he was stuck or something. He said he needed a Captain Jack or something, from Torchwood. And he asked me if I was from Cardiff. I woke up and I wasn't where I'd fell asleep.' She leaned back and shrugged. 'I was probably just sleep walking but… well… when I couldn't get back to sleep I turned on the computer and kind of… got intrigued.'

Jo's eyes looked like they were about to fall out of her head. 'You know what this means, don't you?' she said, hands still clamped over her mouth.

Veronica shrugged and waited for the answer.

'We've got to go to Cardiff.'


	7. The American

Author's Note: Sorry if there are any typos in this one, I haven't had the chance to read it over properly. I don't think there are any but... well you never know do you! xx

* * *

**7 **

**The American**

It was the 23rd of December. The day before Christmas Eve, and Veronica Myers was walking through the middle of Cardiff in horrible cold wind and rain, wondering how the hell her best friend and a complete stranger had talked her into this. Jo and Cal walked a little ahead and were chatting excitedly over the prospect of an impending alien invasion. They spoke loudly too, and drew curious looks from the locals. Veronica only buried her face in her scarf and kept her head down.

'We should be there soon,' Cal told Veronica with that excited look on his face. 'I'm sure it's around here somewhere.'

Veronica looked to him and frowned. 'How the hell do you know where to go anyway?' she asked mostly out of annoyance. 'You're not Welsh.'

Jo smiled. 'Everyone knows about Torchwood Cardiff.' She beamed. 'At least, the people who _really_ want to know do.'

'So you two just happen to know the whereabouts of a top secret organization, do you?' Veronica scoffed. 'Yeah right. And even if we _do_ find it, what do you propose we do? I doubt they'll just let us swan in and look around.'

Cal and Jo dropped into step on either sides of her. Jo flung her arm around her shoulders and grinned. 'It's easy.' She beamed. 'You just tell them the Doctor told you he needs Captain Jack, and we'll be inside Torchwood Cardiff like that.' She clicked her fingers loudly, making Veronica flinch.

'Everyone knows that Torchwood worked really closely with the Doctor during the Dalek invasion.' Cal nodded.

Veronica glanced to him. 'Well if everyone knows that, and everyone knows where Torchwood is, then surely everyone would be turning up claiming they know the Doctor to get inside, wouldn't they?'

Cal and Jo looked at each other. Cal smiled and flung his arm around her shoulders too. 'Trust us.' He grinned. 'You're doing the right thing.'

Veronica looked between the two of them worriedly, but she knew it was too late to back out now.

* * *

'That's a bloody tourist office.' Veronica frowned, blinking through the rain that had become decidedly heavier than it had been. The three of them stood looking at the small tourist office that was tucked away, practically out of sight.

'Weird place for a tourist office,' Jo smirked. 'It could almost be a front, don't you think?'

Veronica looked to her. 'You're kidding.'

'Do I look like I'm kidding?'

'I can never tell with you. You always look mentally deficient.'

Cal tugged on Veronica's arm. 'Come on. Hurry up.'

Veronica resisted at first. 'I don't think this is a good idea.'

Cal only tugged on her arm harder. 'Come on! We're here now.'

She looked to Jo for support, but Jo already had that glazed over look that she got when she was truly anticipating something she thought was going to be wonderful. For now, Veronica was helpless. She should have said no before they had gotten on the train.

Inside the office it was surprisingly cold. Not as cold as it was outside but it was nowhere near warm. Veronica could still see the her breath slightly. Cal and Jo pushed her in first, practically hiding behind her.

_All their excitement and pushiness_, she thought in annoyance. _And they're too bloody scared to go in first. It's just a stupid tourist office._

'Hi there,' a male, Welsh accented voice said pleasantly. 'Can I help you?'

Veronica allowed herself to look around before she answered. The place was quite dark and depressing, not like any tourist offices she had ever been in. There was a rack to the side of the door filled with maps and random leaflets of Cardiff, most of which were in Welsh. There was a lot of clutter, really. Finally, she looked to the man behind the desk and was mildly surprised by him. He was smartly dressed in a suit, with dark hair and a handsome smile. He looked very professional. He looked like he should be working in a bank rather than somewhere like this.

'Um… hi.' Veronica half smiled. She felt Jo push her forward and a little and gritted her teeth. 'I um…'

The man waited for her to speak, smiling just a tiny amount. Searching for her words, Veronica noticed a half eaten pizza on the desk and suddenly felt very hungry, and very sick at the same time. Cal jabbed her in the back this time.

'This is going to sound crazy,' she laughed nervously. 'But these two dragged me here. I uh… Is this Torchwood?'

The man blinked and his expression didn't change. 'This is a tourist office.'

'Oh right.' Veronica nodded. 'It's just I was told this was Torchwood Cardiff.'

'Well, you're definitely in Cardiff.'

Veronica paused, not sure how to continue. She knew for a fact Jo and Cal weren't going to speak for her, and that they probably wouldn't let her leave either. 'Well, it's just I need to speak with someone called Jack Harkness. Um, Captain Jack Harkness. Someone said they needed his help.'

Still the man's expression didn't change, but she noted a little flash in his eye at the mention of Captain Jack Harkness. It encouraged her to continue.

'This bloke um… he calls himself the Doctor? I don't know if you've heard of him but he says he's stuck… somewhere. He didn't directly _ask_ me to come and find Jack Harkness but he seemed pretty stuck and I thought… well I thought I would help.' She laughed a little shrilly. 'Well these two forced me really. I don't have a clue!'

The man looked at her for a long time. 'I'm sorry,' he said finally. 'But I don't know what you're talking about.'

Veronica glanced back to Jo and Cal with narrowed eyes to say 'See?' They shrugged gently. Veronica turned back to the man and smiled in embarrassment. 'Well I'm sorry to bother you with it.'

'Don't worry about it.' The man smiled. 'Helps pass the time.'

Veronica returned his smile weakly and then bundled Jo and Cal outside back into the rain. As soon as they were clear of the Tourist Office of Mortification, she shoved the two of them hard.

'You arseholes!' she cried. 'You just made me look like a complete idiot!'

'He's obviously lying!' Cal said defensively. 'They don't just let anyone wander in you know. I just thought that maybe if you mentioned the Doctor then… maybe… he would have let us in.'

'This is just your own stupid plan to get inside there, isn't it?' Veronica roared at him. 'Your lifelong geeky ambition to get inside of Torchwood and see the aliens close up. You're a bloody idiot!'

'Veronica, I'm sure he didn't mean…'

'And you!' Veronica bellowed at her best friend, who clamped up and looked back at her with wide eyes. 'You're supposed to stick up for me! I told you I didn't want to do this but you just pushed and pushed and pushed! You're just as bad as him!'

Cal and Jo glanced to each other guiltily. Veronica screamed in frustration.

'That's it.' She scowled, storming past them. 'I'm going home.'

'You can't go home!' Jo cried, following her for a couple of steps. 'Not when we're so close!'

Veronica continued to march away. 'It's Christmas Eve tomorrow. I'm going hope to get pissed. See you later.'

Jo and Cal watched her march away in disappointment. Veronica's heart thudded with anger in her chest.

* * *

One thing she hadn't thought about as she stormed away from Jo and Cal was the fact that she didn't have a clue where the train station was. In fact, she had no idea where she was. She had never been to Cardiff in her life. So evidently, just to put the cherry on the cake, she was lost.

Well and truly lost.

Veronica stood on the corner of a sodden street, trying to ask people the way to the train station. But either the people were very rude or she was invisible, because no one would stop to help her. Talk about the Christmas Spirit. One little old woman had stopped to tell her the directions, but Veronica had been unable to fathom her thick accent. She might as well have been talking Japanese. So that hadn't helped.

After the nineteenth person walked away from her shaking their head and muttering, 'sorry,' she just stopped asking and stood where she was for a while. She was soaking, and she was tired, she was surrounded by irate last-minute Christmas shoppers and she was lost. And she felt like she was going to cry. Before she did though, she decided to ask one more person.

'Excuse me?' She tapped the arm of a passing man without properly registering him. 'Could you show me where the train station is please?'

The man turned and beamed at her with such brightness that she was dumbstruck by him. He was stunning, with dark hair, a gorgeous pearly white smile, and sparkling eyes. His coat was long and looked slightly militaristic. Most people would have just looked stupid in it, but he looked fine. More than fine. Perfect. She felt herself grinning moronically.

'Well sure I can.' He replied in a thick American accent that surprised her even more. 'I can do better than that actually. I can show you. I'm headed there myself.'

Veronica cocked her head and smiled. 'Well that would be even better.' She beamed.

The man nodded, smiled that dazzling smile, and gestured ahead. 'This way.'

So she walked alongside him, openly admiring his good looks. Her previous grumbles of being lost and cold and ignored were completely forgotten. 'You don't sound like you're from around here.' She said when she couldn't think of anything else.

'Neither do you.' He replied, still smiling. He struck her as the kind of man who was forever smiling.

'Hence looking for the train station.' Veronica replied, trying (and failing) to be funny. 'But I doubt you can get a train from Cardiff to America.'

The man chuckled. 'Oh I'm not going anywhere. I'm just looking for someone.'

Veronica nodded. 'Well I hope you find them soon. The weather is bloody miserable.'

'Well you could say I'm pretty close.' He told her. 'Might not have to go all the way to the train station after all.'

'As long as you still show me where it is then we're good.' Veronica grinned at him and he laughed lightly in response. Then he gestured to the right.

'It's quicker if we go this way.'

Veronica peered up the narrow street, which was currently deserted apart from one little old man shuffling away in the opposite direction. Now Veronica wasn't a stupid girl, she knew not to go to secluded places with complete strangers, but she didn't feel any need to be wary of this American man. He seemed charming enough. And plus, this was a residential street. If he tried anything she just had to scream loud enough and surely someone would come. And plus, she was still enchanted by him. She followed him willingly down the street.

'So what are you doing in Cardiff?' he asked.

'Oh, nothing much.' Veronica shrugged. 'Just um… My friends dragged me here for something. Something really stupid. I kind of left them in a hissy fit and stormed off. And got lost.'

'Well you couldn't exactly call that smart.' The man laughed. 'What's your name by the way?'

'Veronica.' She held her hand to him as they walked. 'Veronica Myers.'

The man stopped, took her hand, and kissed the back of it. Despite the coldness she felt like her cheeks were burning. She giggled like a schoolgirl. 'So what's your name then?'

He suddenly looked quite serious, even a little apologetic, and he still held her hand in both of his. 'I'm Jack Harkness.' He told her solemnly. 'Captain Jack Harkness.'

Veronica's face dropped and she gaped at him. 'You… you what?'

Jack Harkness stepped forward a little, looking at her with intense eyes and holding her hand tightly. 'Now I need to know that what you told the man in the tourist office is true. If it is true, it's extremely important that you come with me right now.'

Veronica snatched her hand away. 'What? No! I don't want anything to do with this!' She backed away shaking her head. 'It's crazy! It was just a stupid dream. Just a stupid dream brought on by the photos Cal showed me. And the radio thing was probably just Cal and Bradley messing around and… and I probably just heard Torchwood somewhere around and I didn't realise at the time…'

Jack grabbed her shoulders and moved close to her. The rain drummed down on the top of both of them, dripping off their noses. Veronica stared at him unblinkingly. He stared back, deadly serious.

'If the Doctor is here,' he said. 'If he needs my help, then I need to know everything you know. I need you to come with me, or something terrible could happen.'

Veronica shook her head. 'No.'

Jack sighed and shook his head. 'I didn't want to have to do this.' He sighed. 'I don't like doing this.'

Veronica blinked. 'What? Do what?'

She was shocked by the sudden, invasive sound of screeching tires and as she looked around she felt something sharp jab in the side of her neck. She yelped in pain and flinched, but Jack Harkness held onto her tightly. Her legs felt weak and her vision began to blur. Suddenly there were hands all over her and she was being lifted.

'Did you have to do that Jack?'

'Well she would have took off!'

'You just like kidnapping people, don't you?'

'Well it does make me feel a little macho.'

The reply was lost in the blackness as Veronica blacked out completely.


	8. The One With the Information

**8**

**The One With the Information**

Veronica screamed at the top of her lungs. She had meant for the scream to actually be a sentence, or at least a word, but all it came out as was a shrill, tribal screech. She thudded her fists on the transparent wall of her dingy, dirty cell like a person who had been buried prematurely. She had been pounding for so long that her left hand had began to bleed a little, but she was too panicked to care. Too panicked and too angry.

She had woken up in this cell. There was no one around although she could see the red light of the CCTV camera pointed at her cell. She had tried talking to it for a while, but no one had come. Then she resorted to screaming. Still no one came. At first she couldn't think of why she was in the cell. She kept thinking of films like _Saw _and _Captivity_ and expected something insanely horrible to happen at any moment, but then she soon remembered the American when the effects of the sedative had worn off. Captain Jack Harkness. Either this was some elaborate set up on part of Jo, Bradley and Cal… or she really had stumbled onto something much bigger than her.

Veronica finally gave up yelling when her voice gave up. She thumped her head on the glass and sighed heavily. A steamy patch spread in front of her and quickly disappeared. Feeling tired and still a little groggy from being drugged, she turned and looked around her cell. It was grimy and a bit damp. There was a strange smell too. At first she thought it was just urine (which would have been bad enough) but there was an underline hint to it that said otherwise. She didn't want to know what it was really. However she managed to pluck up the courage and sit on the stone outcrop on the back wall. If she had stood for much longer she would have collapsed.

Veronica wasn't completely surprised to hear a door opening about five minutes after she had stopped yelling. Whoever was behind her kidnapping probably didn't want to talk to her when she was in such a hysterical state. She sat and waited for someone to appear in front of her cell. She wasn't surprised to see the man that appeared.

'I've got to apologise about putting you down here.' Captain Jack Harkness told her with an apologetic shrug. He stood tall, with his hands in his pockets and his shoulders back. 'We kind of didn't want you trashing the Hub when you woke up.'

Veronica stared at him. She felt completely drained. Her throat hurt, her nose stung from the horrible smell, her head throbbed from the screaming. Frankly, she couldn't be arsed to speak to him.

'So, have you calmed down?' he asked, head half turned as if expecting another raging outburst.

Veronica shrugged weakly. 'I can barely talk.' She croaked. 'And I've kind of decided to accept all the crazy stuff that's going on. You know, it's bound to happen to you sometime in your life, right? You get contacted by some big legendary saviour of Earth, and then kidnapped by a secret alien-monitoring group and locked in a cell somewhere in Cardiff. I mean, you haven't lived until that's happened, right?' She laughed a short, slightly manic laugh, and then hung her head.

Jack Harkness looked at her sadly. 'We need to ask you a few things. Would you like to come up to the Hub?'

Veronica glanced to him. 'Yeah, sure.' She sighed, standing up. 'Why the hell not? I'll probably just come to on the floor under my window again.'

At this, Jack looked momentarily puzzled, but he opened the cell anyway. As soon as the door was open, he was grinning brightly. He held out his hand. 'Welcome to Torchwood.' He told her. '_Me casa, su casa. _Or whatever the hell it is.'

Veronica looked at him warily, but stepped out of the cell anyway and allowed him to lead her up top.

* * *

'Holy fudge puppies…' Veronica mumbled as they stepped out of the archway and into the Hub. She could do nothing but stand and stare around, mouth hanging open.

Jack carried on walking, hopping up a few metal steps onto a kind of platform equipped with computers and a raggy looking couch. The room itself was impossibly huge. The ceiling seemed miles away. There was weird equipment everywhere. In her stunned state, Veronica couldn't take it all in. She just stood there, staring at her new surroundings.

'Are you coming then?' Jack called back to her.

She blinked and started forward. Overhead she heard something strange. It sounded like _flapping_. She looked up and thought she saw something disappear into one of the many holes in the walls. She opened her mouth to ask what is was, but Jack spoke first.

'Don't worry about her,' he said. 'She won't bother you unless you bother her. Come on.'

Veronica quickly made her way over to him, still gaping around in awe. She stumbled on the top step because she was too busy staring at some kind of huge gun that looked like it belonged in _Doom_ or something. She felt Jack's hand on her shoulder and she looked at him with huge eyes.

'Veronica Myers,' he said, beaming at her. 'I'd like you to meet Team Torchwood.' He held his hand out and she looked to what he was presenting her with.

Three people were stood under an arch, looking at her curiously but smiling politely. There was a woman with bright, intelligent eyes with black hair smiling kindly, and sympathetically. Jack gestured to her.

'This is Gwen Cooper.'

Gwen Cooper waved a little. 'Hello.'

Veronica just blinked to her. Jack gestured to the man beside her – unsurprisingly the same man from the tourist office who had made her feel like a complete nutter.

'Ianto Jones.' Jack said. 'I believe you've already met.'

Ianto Jones nodded but said nothing. Veronica nodded in return, but she wasn't aware of it. Jack gestured to the last woman who was dressed in a white doctor's coat. She smiled broadly.

'And Martha Jones.' Jack told her.

'Um, _Doctor_ Martha Jones.' She corrected with a cheeky smile.

'Of course.' Jack grinned. He nudged Veronica. 'She needs to keep reminding people about that because she can't really do anything else.'

Martha Jones laughed. 'I can show you pain you've never even dreamed of if you're not careful mister.'

Jack laughed. 'I'm waiting.'

Veronica was still looking at them all in bemusement. She was speechless.

'Where's Mickey anyway?' Jack asked, suddenly frowning. 'I wanted him here for when we brought her up.'

'There was a report of a Weevil down at the bay.' Gwen told him. 'He went to see what it was all about.'

'Well he better get back soon,' Jack grumbled. 'We can't start until he gets here.'

Veronica cleared her throat, which was still throbbing. 'Um… start what, exactly?'

Jack looked to her and half winced. 'Well…' he started.

He was interrupted by a mechanical whirring sound coming from behind. Veronica looked around, wide eyed, to see a huge metal door sliding aside. In the newly open doorway stood a man with a closely shaved head, a huge gun in his hands and a bit of a pissed off look on his face.

Or make that an _incredibly _pissed off look on his face.

'There you are Mickey!' Jack called. 'Get over here and meet the newbie.'

Veronica blinked. Newbie?

Mickey's expression didn't change. 'I like how I got sent down to get that Weevil while you lot stayed here.' He frowned as he stormed towards the group. 'You said there was only one of them. There were _twelve_!'

Gwen shifted uncomfortably. 'Well I must have misread the readout.'

Mickey nodded. 'Yeah, yeah you must have. Look, if I'm going to work for you lot then I want to know that I'm not going to get _killed_ because of someone reading the readout wrong. I've fought Daleks and Cybermen and I don't want my days to be ended by some stinking Weevil.' He turned and looked at Veronica who had been staring at him throughout his whole rant. 'What are you looking at?'

Veronica blinked. 'I uh…'

Jack moved forward. 'Mickey, this is Veronica Myers. You know, the girl I was telling you about? Veronica, this is Mickey Smith.'

Mickey Smith's attitude dropped and he looked a little embarrassed. 'Oh, sorry.' He said, holding a hand out to her. 'Didn't mean to be horrible.'

Veronica shook his hand, the feeling of bewilderment almost overwhelming. 'It's okay.' She replied.

'Would you like a cup of tea, ma'am?' Ianto asked, stepping forward. 'Or coffee?'

'Um, water would be fine, thanks.' Veronica told him.

He nodded and headed off. Jack put his hand on her shoulder and smiled. 'Now if you want to come upstairs we'd like to get down to business.' He paused. 'I didn't mean that the way it sounded. Although…'

'Jack.' Gwen frowned disapprovingly. 'I think it's a bit early, don't you think?'

Jack nodded and chuckled. 'I was only joking. Come on then.' He began to herd Veronica back the way they had come and towards a metal staircase. 'I know this is probably a bit much for you to take it, but I swear it's for the best if we get on as soon as possible.'

Veronica nodded. 'Sure but… I uh, I have friends who are probably looking for me. They'll be worried. I should really go and tell them where I am or at least phone them…'

'Don't worry,' Martha piped up from behind. 'They're already heading back to London.'

Veronica turned to her. 'Without me?'

Martha looked uncomfortable. She only shrugged. Gwen touched her arm briefly. 'It won't take long.' She said gently.

Veronica nodded, half frowning, and allowed herself to be ushered into a room with a long table. She guessed it was some kind of meeting room. She was sat at the head of the table by Jack and the others filled the seats surrounding the table. Jack stood at the other end.

'Right then.' He smiled. 'Let's get to it then.'

Veronica glanced around at Gwen, Martha, Mickey and Jack. They were all looking at her expectantly. She felt herself blushing. 'What?' she asked nervously.

The others looked bewildered. 'The Doctor,' Martha said with a nod. 'Where is he?'

'Um… huh?'

'You told Ianto that the Doctor was stuck, and that he needed my help.' Jack said, leaning forward. 'So where is he?'

Veronica shrugged weakly. 'I uh… I don't know.'

The others looked at each other. The door opened behind and Ianto walked in with a silver tray. He set it down on the table beside Veronica and handed her a bottle of Evian water.

'Sorry it's a little warm.' He told her, and then took a seat.

Veronica took a small sip. 'I'm sorry but… well I suppose I told him everything I know.' She nodded to Ianto. 'I just assumed you would know everything.'

Jack sighed heavily and lowered his head. 'This is going to be a long, long night.' He mumbled.


	9. Knowing Nothing But Everything

Author's Note: Okay, I'm having a go at making the chapters longer. If they're too long, let me know. Also, if anyone thinks things are getting a bit too confusing then let me know about that too and I'll try to tone it down. But I promise it's relavant! It is going somewhere lol! Like I said at some point, this is going to be an epic-ly long story! Thanks everyone who's reading and reviewing! x

* * *

**9**

**Knowing Nothing But Everything**

Jack Harkness had been right. It was a long night.

Questions had come thick and fast, but Veronica could not answer any of them. She sat at the end of the ridiculously long table and clutched her bottle of Evian water while the five strangers watched her closely. She didn't know what she was supposed to tell them. Her ignorance on the matter just seemed to irate Jack and he grew more and more impatient. Eventually he had left the room, taking everyone with him apart from Gwen Cooper, who insisted on staying behind.

Neither she nor Veronica moved or spoke for a few moments after the others left. Gwen finally got up from her seat and perched herself on the table. Veronica looked up at her silently.

'I know this must be really weird for you.' Gwen said with a slight shrug. 'It was for me when I first found out about this place.'

Veronica swallowed. 'I don't know anything else, really. Just what I told you, about the dream thing and the radio…'

'I know, I know. Don't worry about it.'

'It's just… um, Jack doesn't seem very happy.'

Gwen lowered her head briefly. She looked like she was about to say something, when she noticed something and closed her mouth again. She seemed to hesitate.

'What?' Veronica pried with a slight frown.

Gwen reached forward and took Veronica's left hand. She turned it over. 'That's an interesting scar.' She commented.

Veronica looked at the puckered pink scar that ran across her palm and shook her head. 'It's nothing.' She replied.

'How long have you had it?' Gwen asked.

Veronica shrugged. 'Always. I don't know.' She frowned and shook her head. 'What does it matter anyway? Look, I guess you've got all you're going to get out of me now. Do you think I could just go home? I mean… it must be Christmas Eve by now, right?' She laughed nervously. 'You lot have got families to go home to, right?'

Gwen smiled sadly. Before she had a chance to respond though, the door opened once again. Veronica turned around to see Ianto looking in. He smiled once at her, and then looked to Gwen.

'They're ready downstairs.' He reported.

Gwen nodded and smiled. She patted Veronica on her shoulder. 'Come on then.'

Veronica rose hesitantly. 'What is it? Can I go home?'

She knew there was something wrong when Gwen averted her gaze and didn't reply, but she followed anyway. Mostly out of curiosity. As she descended the metal staircase with Gwen in front and Ianto behind, she gazed around at the remaining three members. Jack was off to one side, arms crossed over his chest. Martha was by the archway, face solemn. Mickey was waiting at the bottom of the stairs.

'What's going on?' Veronica asked. 'I've told you everything. I need to get back home now.'

'This won't take a minute, I promise.' Jack told her.

Veronica stepped away from them all as soon as she stepped off the bottom step. 'It was a mistake to come here.' She said. 'Look, I was lying, okay? I don't know anything. Those two… um, Jo and Cal, they told me to say that. I don't even know who the Doctor is!' She laughed nervously as they only looked back at her solemnly. 'It was just a stupid story. We're just stupid students, see? We need to make some fun for ourselves. Cal said he would give me twenty quid if I went along with it.' She pointed towards the office where she could see a phone, trying to tone down her mounting hysteria. 'You can call him if you like. I'm sure he'll tell you the truth if you ask him.'

'I'm sorry Veronica,' Jack said, stepping forward. 'Really, I am. But we need you right now.'

Veronica shook her head as Mickey Smith and Ianto Jones advanced on her. Gwen and Martha stood off to one side, watching. 'No, no,' Veronica panicked, waving her hands. 'It's a mistake. A big, huge, giant, stupid mistake. It's just a joke!' She struggled as the two men tried to lead her forward. 'Just for Christmas! A stupid joke for Christmas!'

'It'll be over in a few minutes.' Jack told her. 'Don't make this any harder than it is.'

'Get off me!' Veronica shrieked as Ianto and Mickey had to use more force to help her along. 'Get the hell off me or I'll break your bloody necks! _Get off_!'

By now Ianto and Mickey had her feet lifted off the floor and were marching her along like some kind of dance routine. She kicked her legs wildly, knocking over a stand full of equipment. Gwen hissed and covered her mouth. Ianto flinched.

'That's going to take a bit of organising.' He muttered.

'It's just junk. You don't have to organise everything you know.' Mickey snapped, finding it harder to control Veronica than Ianto did.

Eventually they managed to get her into a small medical room. By now she was trashing and screeching so much that Jack and Gwen had to join in. Martha was off to one side, preparing a syringe. They forced her onto a trolley and began to strap down her flailing limbs.

'You can't do this!' she screamed. 'I have rights! I… I want a lawyer!'

Jack grabbed her shoulders and leaned into her face, making her stop struggling immediately. 'Do you have a lawyer?' he asked calmly.

Veronica blinked. 'I uh… I… No, but-'

'Well then stop complaining.' He smiled, and continued strapping down her arm.

'You can't _do this_!' she yelled at him. 'It's unprecedented! It's… it's kidnap!'

'I always thought we should change the name from 'Torchwood' to plain and simple 'Bag and Grab'.' Ianto said, stepping away and wiping the sweat from his forehead.

'That sounds more like a fast food place.' Mickey replied with a smirk.

'Are you ready there, Doctor Jones?' Jack called. 'She's going to burst right on out of these restraints in a minute.'

Martha arrived by his side, smiling. 'As ever.'

'You're not injecting me with anything!' Veronica roared, struggling even more violently.

Martha leaned forward. 'It's okay, it's just a mild sedative. You need to calm down if we have any chance of getting this done. It's just a pinch, I swear.' She moved forward with the needle.

Veronica instantly began shaking her arm so Martha wouldn't get a clear shot. 'You touch me with that and I'll jam it in your eye!' she barked.

Martha's eyebrows shot up. She glanced to Jack. 'Could you hold her still please?'

Jack nodded and grabbed Veronica's arm. She screamed out but she couldn't do anything about it. She watched helplessly as Martha injected the solution into her arm. In just seconds she felt herself calming down. Her heart rate slowed and her eyelids dropped. She sighed.

'Bloody hell,' Ianto sighed. 'That was rather spectacular.'

'Got a lot of fight in her, I'll give her that.' Gwen agreed.

'I'll bloody kill the lot of you…' Veronica mumbled lazily.

'How much did you give her?' Jack turned to Martha.

'Not enough to knock her out but enough to stop her fighting back.' She replied. 'She'll be fine.'

Jack nodded. 'Right then. Ianto, get the headset.'

Gwen moved forward. 'Jack, I noticed this upstairs.' She pointed at the scar across Veronica's palm. 'It doesn't look like your run of the mill scar to me.'

Jack nodded solemnly. 'I know. I noticed it in the street. That's why I know she's not making it up.'

* * *

Veronica felt as high as a kite. She could remember being forced onto the trolley and strapped down, but she didn't care. She knew she was surrounded by complete strangers who could quite possibly be about to perform some weird transplant operation on her, but she didn't care.

She couldn't give a damn. And why should she care? It's Christmas Eve!

'Merry Christmas.' She turned and grinned to the nearest person.

Mickey Smith looked at her in surprise and then smiled. He turned and spoke to someone else. 'She sounds like my cousin Josh. He's always high as a kite.'

'Will this even work if she's wrecked?' Gwen inquired worriedly.

'Should do.' Jack replied. 'Martha, have you got those blood samples yet?'

'Done and done.' Martha replied. 'I'll get started on these right away, shall I?'

'You do that.' Jack attached a wire to Veronica's temple. 'Now I need for to keep still while I put these on. It might sting a little, okay?'

'Do what you like,' Veronica grinned. 'I can't even feel my toes!'

Jack looked worried. 'Geez she is tanked up, isn't she?'

A few moments later and Veronica had six wires attached to each side of her head. Everyone, apart from Jack, moved back. Gwen remained where she was and held Veronica's hand. She didn't back away even after the short disapproving look she got from Jack.

'Okay Veronica,' Jack said gently. 'This might hurt a little at first. You see, you know things that we need to know. The problem is that you don't know you know them. Do you understand?'

Veronica grinned at him. 'You're a handsome man, do you know that?'

Jack grinned in response. 'Why yes I do know that.'

'Jack.' Gwen frowned.

Jack rolled his eyes. 'Right. Veronica, this is important. I need you to concentrate. Do you remember what the Doctor looks like?'

Veronica screwed up her nose like a small child trying to remember. 'Crazy hair,' she replied finally. 'Dark eyes. Used a lot of weird facial expressions.'

Martha smiled fondly. 'Sounds like him alright.'

'Did you call you an idiot?' Mickey said grumpily. 'Because if he called you an idiot then it's definitely him.'

'No,' Veronica shook her head. Then she nodded to Jack. 'Called him an idiot though.'

Jack laughed. 'Yup, definitely the Doctor.' He put his finger on the switch of the monitor she was hooked up to. 'Okay. Are you ready?'

'Ready as I'll ever be!' Veronica laughed. 'Come on then, light me up!'

Jack glanced at the others, took a breath, and flicked the switch.

Veronica's laugh turned into a bitter scream as the energy ran through her mind. Her back arched off the table and the restraints pulled. Gwen gripped her hand tightly.

'Veronica, I need you to remember the Tardis. Remember the blue box, can you do that?'

'_It hurts_!' she screamed, her face turning bright red.

'Remember!' Jack ordered. 'I need you to remember!'

Veronica screamed in agony and the world around her dissolved into white.

* * *

_She came to with a gasp. She looked around, her chest heaving heavily. She wasn't strapped to the table any more. She was standing in the middle of a street. Not just any street – her street. Across the road she could see the playground where she played every day. She could see Maddie Kingston at the top of the slide, ready to go down. With a grin, Veronica started forward. Someone grabbed the back of her coat. _

'_Veronica, you know better than that. Look both ways.'_

_Veronica turned and looked up at her mummy, who was looking back at her sternly. She sighed and nodded, and then looked both ways. No cars. Veronica Myers, aged 6 and a half, skipped across the road towards the play park._

_She played for a while. She pretended to be a princess at the top of the slide, but when Johnny Farrow refused to rescue her, she had to slide down. She pretended to be a worm for a while, but her mother told her she was getting her dress dirty, so she had to stop. She hung upside down on the monkey bars and pretended to be a bat, but she got a headache after a little while. With all the corners of her imagination bled dry, Veronica looked for something else to amuse herself with._

_That was when she saw it. The blue box._

_It was outside the fence, across the road. She knew she wasn't allowed to leave the park on her own, but her mummy was busy talking with Maddie Kingston's daddy. She wouldn't notice. So she slipped out of the gates and ran across the road._

_There was something magical about the blue box. It stood on the corner of the street, in plain view of everyone, even thought it didn't belong there. People walked past it as if it had always been there, but Veronica knew it hadn't. She ran her hand on the smooth wood and smiled. It felt warm. She pushed the door, and it creaked open._

_Stepping inside Veronica was filled with wonder, for the inside was impossibly huge. She slowly entered, her small eyes expanding to try and take in the impossible things she was seeing. The golden walls. The glowing magic tube. It was like a palace in her storybooks. She moved forward slowly, her small feet barely making a sound on the metal beneath them. She approached the magical centre of the impossible room, hand stretched out in front of her. She felt the overwhelming urge to touch it. She had to touch it. It was if she was made to touch it._

_Just as her hand brushed the metal, the door behind her opened. _

'_Donna, what have I told you about leaving the door open?'_

'_Well sooorr-y! If it's that bloomin' important then why don't you double check that it's locked?'_

'_Well I would if… hey!'_

_Veronica gasped and gripped the magic centre. She gripped too hard. Something cut into her palm deeply and she let out a squeak._

'_What are you doing in here?' the tall man demanded. _

_Veronica didn't want to get wrong. She didn't like getting wrong. Gripping onto her now bloody hand, she ran for the door. The man and the red haired woman made a grab for her, but she slipped between them and hit the pavement running. She ran into the road without looking._

'_Lookout!' the tall man yelled. _

'_Veronica!' her mummy shrieked._

_The car screeched noisily, but didn't stop in time._


	10. Important Orders

**10**

**Important Orders**

_The car didn't stop._

_Oh God the car isn't stopping._

_Mummy please! Mummy I-_

'Mummy!'

Veronica screamed out, her eyes snapping open wide. Immediately, the pale skinned, bright-eyed woman was in her face, gripping her hand tightly. 'It's okay,' she was saying soothingly. 'It's okay. You're back. You're back with us.'

Veronica looked around frantically at the solemn faces that surrounded her. For a few seconds she was still six years old, terrified and wanting her mother. But then it passed and she remembered where she was. With a gasp, she relaxed on the trolley and stared up at the ceiling.

'Are you okay, Veronica?' Jack asked, stepping beside her.

She couldn't speak. She could only nod, still breathing heavily. She could feel the sweat on her brow. Her body was pulsating with adrenaline.

'Do you remember now?' Gwen asked gently.

Veronica looked at her. Yes she remembered. She remembered the blue box. She remembered the tall man and the woman who had caught her in a place she hadn't belonged. She remembered running into the road and being hit by a small red car. She remembered being in hospital for two months with various broken bones. She remembered everything. So she nodded.

'Okay then.' Jack sighed. 'Let's get you off that trolley. We've got some things to go through.'

* * *

'She's still really shaken up.' Martha said in a low voice. 'I don't think we should push her into anything straight away.'

Jack stood tall and stubborn with his hands in his pockets. He peered through the window and into the room where Veronica sat. She had her hands wrapped around a cup of tea and was staring into it. Gwen sat beside her, talking gently. Mickey and Ianto were clearing up the medical area.

'Martha, you know there's something big happening here. We need the Doctor. And at the minute the only person who can get in touch with him is her. We need her to get the details so we can help him.'

Martha frowned slightly. 'But what if she can't? What if something goes wrong, Jack? We can't risk it. We need to know more about how it works. I'm assuming that when she cut her hand she somehow absorbed a part of the Tardis resulting in their apparent connection, but that's just a theory! She obviously has no control over it. And she said herself the Doctor didn't even know how she did it, and he knows everything!'

Jack moved towards her. 'Have you seen the readouts recently?' he asked quietly but sternly. 'The electromagnetic readings are getting higher and higher every hour. There have been reports of some metallic objects in southern Japan actually _electrocuting_ people. The Doctor said something about electric pulses. Do you think that's a coincidence?'

Martha shook her head. 'No, but what I'm saying is-'

'We don't have time to be worrying about the risks. Whatever is happening, it's happening _fast_. We need her to get the Doctor here before all holy hell breaks loose.' He turned on his heels and headed for the door.

'What makes you think it's so bad?' Martha asked, starting after him.

He turned. His expression was dark. 'Because it's always bad.' He replied, and headed into the room.

Veronica looked up from her tea for the first time as Jack entered. She watched him cross the room and sit at the opposite end of the table. They looked at each other, neither of them speaking.

'Do you understand what's going on here?' Jack asked her directly.

She hesitated. 'I um… I think so.'

'And you understand what I would like you to do.'

Veronica cleared her throat. 'You want me to um… You want me to go back to the uh, the Tardis. Right?'

Jack nodded. Gwen took her hand again and smiled. 'But you don't have to do anything you don't want to, okay? We're not forcing you into doing anything.'

Veronica offered her a weak smile, but before she had a chance to respond, Jack spoke again.

'Well that's right,' he said, leaning back in his chair and putting his feet up on the table. 'You don't have to do anything of course. But I'll warn you now that if you do decide to leave now without helping us then there's a good chance the end of the world will come about in a few days. Few weeks if we're lucky.'

Veronica looked at him, stricken. 'What? How'd you get to that conclusion?'

'We've been monitoring heightened levels of electricity in the atmosphere for a few days now,' Gwen explained softly. 'A few metallic objects are becoming, well, _conductive_ even though the don't have a source. It ties in with what the Doctor said about electronic pulses. If he is trapped in some sort of electric… _pen_ if you will, then it could quite possibly be because someone doesn't want him to get to Earth and stop whatever is happening.'

Veronica blinked. 'But that's… that's ridiculous. Where could the electricity be coming from?'

Jack shrugged. 'We have no idea. We've scanned the surrounding atmosphere but apart from the unusual electromagnetic readings, there's nothing. We never expect to see the Tardis. It never shows. But if everything carries on at the rate it has been, then even your earrings could be capable of pumping over five hundred volts of electricity through you by New Years Eve.' He half grinned and winked. 'Would be one hell of a light show, let me tell you.'

Veronica looked confused and disgusted. 'And you have no idea what's causing it?'

Gwen shook her head apologetically. Jack followed suit.

'But the Doctor didn't either.' Veronica told them. 'At least he didn't say he did. He might know but he just didn't tell me…'

'He probably just didn't tell you.' Jack smiled. 'That's the thing about the Doctor. He kind of just expects you to know.'

Veronica nodded, and then bit her lip. 'So um… how do I do it?'

Jack cocked an eyebrow. 'I was hoping you could tell us. How did you do it last time?'

'Well… I was asleep. That's why I just thought it was a dream.'

Jack nodded thoughtfully, then stood up and clapped his hands. Both Veronica and Gwen jumped. 'Well you look absolutely worn out to me. You should get some rest.'

* * *

'Is this really necessary?' Veronica asked, finding herself back on the trolley in the medical area with Martha approaching her with a needle. 'I mean, if you can be patient just give me a really dull book and about ten minutes and I'll be sleeping like a log. No needles needed.'

Martha smiled gently. 'At least we know this'll get the job done.' She said. 'If I'm perfectly honest with you, I didn't want to give you another sedative. It was Jack's idea.'

Veronica smiled nervously. 'He just likes knocking people out doesn't he?'

Martha raised her eyebrows. 'You have no idea. Now, do you know what you're going to say to the Doctor?'

Veronica nodded. 'Just about. By what you lot have been saying about him I'll be lucky if I get a word in edgeways.'

'Just talk over him.' Martha smiled. 'He'll compete with you for a while, but he'll soon shut up.'

'You know him too then?'

Martha nodded. 'Oh yeah. I travelled with him. For a long time.'

'Where did you go?'

'Oh, here and there.' There was a sparkle in her eye. 'Nowhere special.'

Veronica nodded and let out a deep breath. 'Well you better get on with it.' She frowned suddenly. 'Oh, I'm not going to be acting all drugged when I get there, am I?'

Martha froze. 'No,' she half laughed. 'At least… I don't think so. Don't worry about it. You'll be fine.'

Veronica nodded. 'Okay then. Go for it before I change my mind.'

Martha smiled and winked at her. 'See you on the other side then.' She injected the sedative. Veronica had a few moments of dizziness, and then she passed out.

* * *

And came to on her knees on the metal grate. She looked up, still overwhelmed by the sight of the large control panel even though she had seen it twice already. Three times if you counted her reliving the memory of when she was six. She got to her feet slowly and looked around. She could hear banging and clanging, but she couldn't see the Doctor anywhere. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to do. So she just cleared her throat noisily.

A second later a head popped up from an opening in the floor by the control panel. It was the Doctor looking rather stunned with his glasses perched on his nose and a strange metal pen thing in his teeth. He frowned and scrunched up his nose. He snatched the pen from his teeth.

'You again!' he cried.

Veronica smiled warily. 'Me again!'

The Doctor hauled himself out of the hole and marched towards her. 'What are you doing back? You did a good job of disappearing without a trace last time. For a minute there I thought I might have actually had some help!'

Veronica recoiled away from his annoyed tone. 'I uh… I came back to help. I mean, I was sent to help. To help you get… um, unstuck.' She had known exactly what she was going to say but now it was gone. 'From wherever you're… stuck.'

The Doctor looked at her in disbelief. 'What, are you going to get out and push?'

Veronica blinked. 'What?'

'Do you know anything about Tardis', Victoria Mars?'

'Um, Veronica Myers…'

'Whatever.' The Doctor shook his head. 'The point is, you don't know anything about my Tardis, which means there is no way that you could help me get it up and running at full capacity again, is there? Now unless you have some neutron reverting tractor beam stuffed up your shirt then there's nothing you can really do, is there?'

Veronica found herself getting annoyed with his rant. Perhaps if he shut up for a minute and let her explain properly why and, more importantly _how_ she was on board his precious space ship, he wouldn't resort to being so bloody rude with her.

From the look on his face, she realised she had thought aloud.

'So, are you going to listen then?' she asked, crossing her arms.

The Doctor gaped at her for a moment, and then stubbornly mimicked her movements, snatching his glasses off his nose in the process. 'Come on then, Miss Mars.'

'Myers.' She frowned.

The Doctor rolled his eyes and tapped his foot.

'Okay, now that you've shut up, maybe I _can_ help.' She cleared her throat as she searched for words. 'After I came here the last time, I ended up in Cardiff, looking for Torchwood.'

The Doctor suddenly looked interested. His posture relaxed and he looked at her curiously. 'Okay. I'm listening.'

'And I found Jack Harkness, who rather rudely kidnapped me and stuck me in a bit of a stinky cell.'

The Doctor laughed. 'Ah!' he pointed. 'You got yourself Jack-napped!'

Veronica glowered at him. 'Anyway, I ended up strapped to a table and drugged. Then they made me remember something. Something that happened when I was a kid.' She held her scarred palm out to him and shrugged. 'Remember the little girl who go in here? Ran across the road and got hit by a car?'

The Doctor's mouth dropped open and he grabbed her hand. 'Oh…' he looked at her in disbelief. 'Oh, oh, oh!' Suddenly he was dragging her towards the control panel. 'That's it! That's why you kept coming back here! I probably would have noticed if I hadn't been too busy grumping.' He hauled Veronica behind him and she stumbled and protested loudly but he wasn't listening. 'When you cut your hand your DNA got mixed in with the Tardis! The Tardis _isn't _on partial shutdown because it's broken, it's because it was concentrating on bringing you here because it knew we needed you help! _Brilliant!_' He grinned and smacked the control panel hard. 'You _beauty_ you!'

Veronica was stunned by his sudden change in manner. She was even more stunned when he turned and hugged her tightly. She shoved him off. 'Okay, that's enough of that.' She told him sternly.

The Doctor was almost bouncing. 'This is just fantastic. You do know that if you hadn't wandered in here when you were… how old were you?'

'Six.' Veronica replied.

'If you hadn't wandered in here Victoria Myers-'

'It's _Veronica Myers_. It's not that bloody difficult.'

He waved his hand dismissively. 'I could have been stuck here _forever_, do you understand?' He hugged her again. 'It's _fantastic_!'

'Right, okay!' Veronica cried, unable to prevent herself from laughing a little. 'It's fantastic! So can you please tell me what's going on so I can tell Jack when I get back?'

The Doctor let go of her abruptly, causing her to almost fall over. He dashed off. 'Yes, yes I can. Come here and pay attention.'

Veronica followed him to a TV monitor on the control panel. On it was a weird looking image consisting of three blue dots, one red dot and a bunch of lines. The Doctor pointed at the red dot. 'This is the Tardis.' He told her, and then pointed at the other dots. 'And these are the bugs keeping it in place. They are emitting about two hundred million volts of electricity to form a barrier that is penning us in. If I try and pass through, the Tardis is thrown back. Think of it like… when you throw a bouncy ball at a trampoline or something. Well, what I need Jack, or I suppose anyone at Torchwood to do is to knock out one of these bugs. It only takes one to break the circuit, do you understand?'

Veronica nodded. 'Yeah, I think so.'

'You think so? Because you need to know so.'

'Yeah. Yeah I do. I understand.'

'Good, because I'm only explaining this once. Right, the most important part, and this bit you can't forget because it's _very, very _important, is that you must _not_ use-'

* * *

Veronica snapped awake. Immediately, everyone was at her side. She blinked and looked at them all.

'Well?' Mickey asked. 'What did he say?'

Veronica looked at them for a moment, and then scowled. 'Bloody hell!' she cried.


	11. Hidden Weaponry

Author's Note: Okay, I've spent ages on this chapter and it totally doesn't show. For some reason I just can't get it right and now I've given up and decided just to post it. So if you don't like it, I'm sorry but I think I'm suffering from the beginings on a block, or at least a little one is just passing through :p Let me know what you think, improvements etc. x

* * *

**11**

**Hidden Weaponry**

'Look, I'm _not_ giving her another sedative.' Martha said angrily. 'She's had two pretty high doses already. _Three_ if you count you knocking her out on the street corner.'

Jack shook his head vigorously. 'We need to know what he was going to say. What if we use the wrong thing and end up blowing up the planet? What then?'

Martha crossed her arms over her chest stubbornly. 'Then at least we won't be having this argument anymore. I'm _not_ giving her another sedative, Jack. End of story.'

Jack sighed heavily and rubbed his face with both hands. 'Fine. Fine. Well at least we have an idea of where he is. At least we can get started.'

Veronica appeared in the doorway of the office. 'I'd really appreciate it if you didn't drug me again.' She said.

Jack and Martha looked at her in surprise. Jack narrowed his eyes briefly and then moved towards her. 'You know what? I'd like to thank you for your help but I think we've pretty much got this covered now…' He reached out to take her elbow but she batted him away.

'You!' she hissed, pointing a finger in his face. 'Don't you dare dismiss me like I'm… I…' She paused to search for a word, and failed. 'Like I'm someone unimportant. You forced me to get involved with all this crap. You forced me to remember things that I never wanted to remember. I'm _staying_ here until this is sorted out, okay?' She breathed out and shuddered. 'Even though I still think it's all ridiculous.'

Jack blinked at her, and then laughed. 'You know what, I nearly forgot how much I like you. Course you can stay. Actually, are you looking for a job at the minute?'

'Uh… eh?' Veronica replied in confusion.

'We'll talk later.' He told her, patting her shoulders. 'Well seeing as you've made yourself a member of Team Torchwood, albeit perhaps temporarily, I imagine you'd like to sit in on our team meeting.'

Veronica remained where she was and ended up being ushered along by Martha when she found herself slightly rooted to the spot in complete confusion. Ahead of her, Jack was clapping his hands and calling for everyone to get upstairs, _pronto_.

'You know, if Jo could see me now I think she might just have a heart attack.' Veronica sighed, glancing to Martha. 'I am going to wake up any minute and have to worry about Christmas presents again, aren't I?'

Martha just patted her on her shoulder. 'I could have been worse. You could have been transported to the moon.'

Veronica just gawped at her as she moved past and went up the stairs. After gathering herself for about the millionth time that night, she followed.

* * *

The meeting had just been confusing. All of the team just seemed to know what everyone else was talking about, and they moved on so _quickly_. It was over before Veronica was even sure it had begun. They finished each other's sentences, cracked jokes that made no sense, seemed to understand the plan before it even left Jack's mouth.

Now everyone was getting up and moving for the door. Veronica wasn't sure what to do.

'Well are you coming?' Jack asked, pausing beside her.

'Well yeah.' She replied, rising. 'What's going on?'

He frowned, amused. 'Weren't you listening?'

'Well I uh…'

'Come on. I'll explain properly on the way.'

She grabbed his arm before he had a chance to leave. 'You're not going to drug me again, are you?'

Jack only winked. 'Only if you're into that sort of thing.'

He turned and left the room and she screwed her face up. However she couldn't prevent the colour that flushed her cheeks.

* * *

'So here's the deal,' Jack announced as they hurtled down the dark streets of Cardiff in a large black car. 'We knock out one of those bugs and the Doctor will come hurtling down to us.'

'Won't that kind of uh… make him crash?' Martha replied, crushed in the backseat between Ianto, Mickey and Veronica.

'Not if we control his landing.' Mickey replied with a grin. 'Something I brought back with me from parallel Torchwood.' He pulled a round clear ball from his pocket and held it out for the others to see.

'It's a bouncy ball.' Veronica said flatly.

Mickey frowned defensively. 'It's not a bouncy ball. It's a security net. We found it in a crash site just off the west coast of Ireland. You can program it to latch onto something coming through the atmosphere and it locks on, drawing the object towards it and at the last minute it stretches out and catches it.' He tossed it up and grabbed it again, grinning. 'Like a safety net.'

'You found it in a crash you say?' Gwen half smiled, looking over her shoulder at him.

'Yeah.' Mickey grinned.

'Well it sure didn't work well for them, did it?' she smirked, turning back to the window and causing Mickey's smile to fade.

'I'm sorry if I come across as ignorant or whatever,' Veronica sighed, shaking her head. 'But I still don't really get what you're going to do. Okay, Mickey's got a magic bouncy ball that's apparently going to catch a spaceship but you haven't really said how you're going to take out the bug. I mean, the Doctor was going to say something really important about what _not_ to use so don't you think that maybe you should spend a bit more time studying the bug? You know, just in case it all goes to pot and you blow us up?'

There was silence in the car for a few awkward moments.

'Don't worry.' Jack replied. 'If it goes wrong, I'll be okay.'

Gwen turned and frowned at him. 'We'll be okay.' She corrected. 'If it goes wrong, _we'll_ be okay.'

Jack only turned and winked at her. Before anyone had a chance to say anything else, he stopped the car and pushed open the door. 'We're here.' He announced.

Everyone climbed out into the night and immediately got busy. Veronica though, who was still absolutely clueless to what was going on, just stood by the car and watched them all. They were at a flat car park that was unusually void of any other vehicles apart from the one they had arrived in. Jack was off to one side, messing around with a parking ticket machine, while the others were pulling equipment out the back of the car and running to the centre of the car park.

'What are you doing?' Veronica shouted, hugging herself from the cold. 'I don't think we really have to worry about parking tickets. It's Christmas day tomorrow. The traffic wardens will probably be off.'

She was ignored. Gwen, Mickey, Martha and Ianto were huddled around something on the ground. Jack apparently had the front of the ticket dispenser off and was fiddling with the wires. Veronica ran her fingers through her hair, getting increasingly agitated. This whole thing was getting beyond ridiculous. Why was she still here? She immediately told herself she was still in shock. Well of course she would be in shock. She was _kidnapped_. That was it - she was kidnapped! They had been drugging her and filling her full of this spiel about aliens and now they had dragged her to a car park in the middle of Cardiff probably ready to do God knows what to her.

Maybe _they_ were the aliens!

Too many panicked thoughts were running through her mind and she scrambled back into the car, pulling the back door shut. She sat there, breathing heavily, and watched what was going on out of the window.

Jack was jogging across the tarmac to join the rest of them. They all remained there for a few moments, looking down at something on the ground, and then they all began to back away. Veronica watched in awe as the tarmac slid away and something began to rise out of the ground.

'You have got to be kidding me…' she muttered, shaking her head.

It looked like a missile. A missile was coming out of the middle of a car park in Cardiff. A moment later and they group were running back to the car. And they weren't just running, they were _sprinting._ They all dived back in their seats, breathing heavily.

'What the hell is that?' Veronica cried. 'You have a bloody missile?'

'You never know when you'll need a missile.' Jack replied. He turned to Ianto. 'Did you set the coordinates?'

'Yes sir.' Ianto nodded.

'Okay then.' Jack glanced around at them all. They looked back at him expectantly. 'Here we go.' He pushed a big red button on a handheld remote and suddenly the ground began to rumble beneath them. They all watched the missile apprehensively as it began to glow orange, and then suddenly shoot off into the sky. It left a trail of thick black smoke behind it that trailed after it and into the equally black sky. Veronica heard the doors opening around her.

'What are you _doing_?' she demanded. Running on nothing but adrenaline and fear, she hauled open her own door and stumbled out, instantly choking on the fumes from the missile.

'Mickey get ready!' Jack yelled from somewhere in the fog.

'I'm always ready!' Came the reply.

Veronica waved her hand in front of her face and looked up at the sky. The fog was clearing. She could see the fiery torpedo shooting up towards a small cluster of three bright stars. She watched with her breath caught in her throat. The others stood in a similar pose, watching apprehensively. There was a bright glow of yellow light as the missile collided with one of the small bright stars.

'Bull's eye!' Jack yelled, punching the air. 'You better be ready, Mickey-boy!'

'Get off my back man. I told you I'm ready.'

'Oh… uh, Jack?' Gwen shielded her eyes and squinted. 'Is that supposed to be happening?'

They all watched as the small star doubled in size and turned a fiery red. It streaked across the sky like a meteor. At the same time, another light was plunging towards the Earth, and _fast_.

'That is _not_ going to hit what I think it's going to hit.' Martha shook her head, watching the red light. It was heading straight for the moon.

'Mickey, he's coming!' Jack yelled.

'I _know_!' Mickey yelled in irritation. He watched the blue light, which was growing larger and larger, and then hurled the clear ball up at the sky. It did nothing. It came back down and bounced away across the tarmac. Everyone watched it, and then looked at him in disbelief.

'Oh sod this!' Veronica blurted, turning and running back for the car.

Jack looked up. He pointed across the car park and yelled, 'Everyone _run_!'

Not needing to be told twice, everyone sprinted away. Jack turned and ran after Veronica, who was tugging on the door of the car frantically. He grabbed her and lifted her clean off her feet and raced after the others. By now there was a loud noise from overhead and a warm wind was whipping up around them. Jack and Veronica were only barely clear of the car when something smashed into it, crushing it down into a crater. The object that had just fallen from the sky burrowed through about a hundred yards of tarmac before coming to a smoking halt. Still hunkered down to protect themselves from impact, the group watched in awe.

The door of the Tardis flew open and the Doctor staggered out, his hair askew and suit dusty. He gasped for breath, looked around in bewilderment, and then finally saw them. He climbed out of the crater and dusted himself off. Jack rose, grinning, and was just about to speak when the Doctor yelled at him.

'You bloody idiots!' he cried, pointing up at the sky. 'I told you _no missiles_!'

Dumbfounded, Jack and the others looked up just in time to witness the fiery red meteor collide with the moon. There was a flash of red and a rumble. In shock, they all looked back to the Doctor.

'You just took a chunk out of the _moon_!' he yelled angrily.

They all stared at him silently. Finally, Jack shrugged his shoulders. 'At least you're here.'

The Doctor grimaced and flattened down his suit. He nodded to Veronica. 'Nice to see you again Victoria.'

Veronica couldn't bring herself to correct him. She just squeaked.

'Right.' He sighed. 'Shall we get started on saving the planet then?'


End file.
